Many modern girls have an obsessive love for our traditional costume Hanfu, in the bustling city, girls dressed in Hanfu, fairy spirit fluttering, is a beautiful landscape. However, when you buy Hanfu home and put it on once or twice, you will face a rather headache problem: this Hanfu is fluttering, the skirt is long, and it inadvertently "drags the ground".
Nowadays, we have washing machines, washing liquid, even if the hand washing also has soap or something, the clothes are dirty washing is naturally not a problem. But in ancient times, everyone wore Hanfu, and it grew to the hem of the floor, and as soon as they went out, wouldn't they get dirty? The probability of staining clothes is so high, is the frequency of washing clothes also very frequent? Moreover, in ancient times, there was no such thing as soap and laundry detergent, and they soiled their clothes, so how did they wash them?
In fact, the wisdom of the ancient people should not be underestimated. Although there are no modern soaps and laundry detergents, they also have "developed" laundry supplies with strong decontamination ability.
The first is the "soap horn". In many areas, there is a deciduous tree that is covered with thorns and is named "soap pod tree". Since the fruit of the saponaria tree contains pancreatic saponin, it can be used as a cheap tool for laundry decontamination by simply mashing it and simply processing it. As recorded in Song Zhuang's "Chicken Ribs and Soap Pods": "Take the soap pod kernels and boil them, soak them in sugar water, called 'crystal soap'." "This is probably the first generation of soap processed from natural plants."
However, it should be noted that this thing is not safe and harmless during processing, such as some pods, seeds, and rhizomes are poisonous, like water soaked with soap horns, which cannot be eaten. According to historical data, if a person takes more than 200 grams of soap horn water, he will even be poisoned to death.
In ancient times, there were many soap pod trees in some areas, but there were also few places. So there is no soap pod and there is no soap corner, what do they use as a decontamination tool to wash clothes? Also in the "Chicken Rib Chapter , Soap Pods" also has a relevant record: "Zhejiang zhongzhong less soap pods, bath noodles, raccoon clothes are made of fat beads." The "fat beads" here, also known as the seeds, are trees that grow mainly in tropical and subtropical regions.
The fruit produced by this tree is generally round and black and fat, and the flesh is relatively thick, people pick this fruit, steam it and put it in the sun to expose it, and after drying, it can be used to wash clothes, and the role is similar to that of "soap horn". Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" also records the wonderful use of this thing: "Harvest in October, cook and pitt, mash wheat noodles or bean noodles as bath medicine." Whether it is "as a bath medicine" or as a "soap" after steaming and drying, it reflects its decontamination effect.
What if there are no soap horns or fat beads? The ancients told us with practical actions that there are ways. For example, there is a famous word about washing clothes in ancient times: "pulp washing".
If there is no soap horn, then you can use rice soup or rice water, put it in a large pot and slowly cook, to boil, and then cool to a certain temperature, you can put the clothes that have been washed once into it, constantly stir, let the clothes soak in the pulp water for a while, and then rinse it with clean water to dry. If the family conditions are relatively good, you can not only use rice soup or rice water, but choose to dilute with starch and water, the effect will be better.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, in addition to the widespread use of soap horns and fat beads, rapeseed cakes were also added as a decontamination tool to wash clothes. Because the tea seed cake is the remainder of the oil after the oil is squeezed, which also contains saponin components, it is mashed, immersed in water there will be juice flowing out, and this juice can just play a certain decontamination effect.
In addition, there is a relatively commonly used one: natural alkali. Maybe the previous generation often used one thing to wash clothes, called alkaline face. This thing can be used as yeast for hair, and can also be used to wash clothes, and the decontamination effect is still very good. However, with the popularity of washing powder and laundry detergent, alkaline noodles are less commonly used to wash clothes. In ancient times, natural alkali is relatively easy to extract, generally on the surface can be collected, people find that its decontamination effect is good, it is used to wash clothes, and even some people specially collect it and take it to the market to sell.
As the decontamination tools that can be used for washing clothes become more and more diverse, the ancients also realized that perhaps the effect of using a single one is not very good, so they thought of combining them and taking a mixed way, which is often more obvious.
Finally, for people who live by the water's edge, the "clothes-pounding pestle" as a "hardware facility" is an indispensable tool for washing clothes. In the imagery of many literati and inkers, there are often raccoon women holding a whipping pestle, silently huffeling clothes by the river, and this scene has a quiet and leisurely appearance of the years, which makes many people unconsciously fascinated.
For ancient times, because clothes are easy to get dirty, the laundry industry is also a relatively hot industry, and "jobs" are relatively sufficient. For example, in some film and television dramas or novel works, there are often some women who are desperate and choose to wash other people's clothes in exchange for some broken silver in order to make a living.
Especially some rich and noble families, their clothes will never be washed by themselves, most of the family has servants, but the servants also have other things to do, it is impossible to wash clothes all day long; in addition, there are many rich and noble family members, and there are many clothes, so when the clothes cannot be washed, they will also "outsource" some people who do laundry and casual work to help them wash their own clothes.
It can also be seen that the work of helping people wash clothes in ancient times was also very common.
Author: Our team has a falling moon
References: Song Zhuangxuan's "Chicken Rib Chapter, Soap Pods", Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Hundred Herbs"